What if Speed Becomes a Factor?
Category: Michele Paige
Until recently the primary concern for developers was making sure Web pages and applications loaded properly. Speed was a secondary concern. If I go to a site that is slow loading, I typically don’t go back unless there is no alternative. Currently, Google’s PageRank does not factor in page loading time. So even with a slower load time a site could still have a decent ranking. But there has been talk that speed will be factored into Google’s PageRank as part of the Google Caffeine update.
Webmasters and developers are concerned how much of a factor Google ranking by speed will have. Heavy flash and application usage and high traffic are among the many reasons a web site may load slow. Is it fair for them to be penalized due to these factors? It will be a while before Google Caffeine is launched, so no one knows how factoring in speed will influence rankings. As a frequent Internet surfer, I am interested to see what changes Google Caffeine will initiate regarding page speed.
Posted By: Michele Paige | Date Published: 12.30.2009 | Comments (0)